Broken Toys

Chapter 06

A lot can happen during a month and a lot happened when TK and Carlos left the cabin and the forest behind.

Although time had stopped for that week, life went on, and Gabriel and Andrea, as well as the doctors at the hospital, were waiting for Carlos' answer as to what he was going to do.

There was no doubt; Carlos knew it, and TK feared it and knew it too. There weren't (too many) tears, though TK held many back because it wasn't about his trauma, it was not his problem, although he wanted to share it with Carlos and take some of that weight off his back. Ultimately it was not his decision.

They spent the last night in the cabin talking about it. They ordered food from one of the restaurants in the nearby mall and forgot about everything else.

"I didn't think home delivery would go this far," Carlos said as they set up their impromptu picnic in front of the fireplace.

"I'm glad we don't have to cook."

"We?" Carlos threw a pillow in TK's face and laughed. "I wasn't going to let you in the kitchen on our last night here, you'd either burn it down or we'd end up in the hospital.

TK tensed up when he heard that. The hospital was, almost certainly, their next stop the next day.

It hadn't been his best choice of words.

"Ty..."

"It's okay, I know, you didn't mean it."

"But I did. I've got it so set in my mind that I'm going to spend the next few weeks in the hospital, I guess it doesn't affect me that much."

"Weeks?" TK sat among the cushions. "Have you thought about how much time you're going to need to...?"

Carlos settled down next to him and took his hands.

"I don't know how much time I'm going to need, but we still haven't talked about what happened the other day."

"We don't need to talk about it."

"You haven't let me tell you that I didn't try to..." TK knelt down, leaned over him and kissed him. "You did it again, baby."

"Done what?"

"Every time I try to talk to you about what happened at the lake, you change the subject, play a joke on me, or we end up having sex in every corner of the house."

"Now you're going to tell me it wasn't amazing." Carlos raised his eyebrows and stared at TK. "I've done it again, haven't I?"

"It's a mode of defense like any other. Mine has been to hide all the shit I've been carrying inside for years and you...you often look the other way, try to avoid confrontation."

"No..." TK laughed. "Okay, I did try to avoid talking about it, because..."

"Because you think I tried to kill myself."

TK stifled a groan at hearing that; he had managed to keep Carlos from saying it out loud for three days.

Carlos noticed that he turned pale, and so he grabbed his hands again, squeezing them tightly, which made TK hate himself even more. Those days were for Carlos, so he could take care of Carlos, to try to keep him from having to end up in the hospital fighting the past.

And there they were as always, Carlos protecting him, Carlos doing his best to make sure he didn't have a bad time, Carlos taking care of TK.

"Tell me about it," TK said in a whisper, but as soon as he said it, he felt he had been freed from something.

"What do you want to know, baby?"

A caress from Carlos on his cheek made TK smile.

"What was in your head when you sank into the water."